Political Blotter: Corbett bills aim to curb residential care snafus

This is a sampling from Bay Area News Group's Political Blotter blog. Read more and post comments at www.ibabuzz.com/politics.

Jan. 13

State Senate Majority Leader Ellen Corbett introduced two bills Monday that aim to prevent future snafus like that which led to more than a dozen senior citizens being abandoned at a Castro Valley residential care home in October after the state ordered it shut down.

Corbett says her SB 894 will strengthen and clarify the obligations of the California Department of Social Services and a licensee when that license is suspended or revoked, to ensure safe relocation of residents when a facility closure happens. And SB 895 will bolster the assisted-living facility inspection process by requiring that unannounced, comprehensive inspections of all residential care facilities for the elderly occur at least once per year, and more often if necessary to ensure the proper quality of care.

Corbett, D-San Leandro, said in a news release that the bills "are a direct result of the tragic gaps in care that occurred in Castro Valley at the Valley Springs Manor facility."

Advertisement

"Particularly since the California Department of Social Services recently admitted that their oversight and response at the facility was inadequate, I believe that there continues to be an urgent need for increased protections for residents at these facilities," she said. "We must ensure that families have the peace of mind of knowing that there are safeguards in place to protect their loved ones when they are residents of assisted living facilities, as well as if and when those facilities are closed by the state."

Jan. 14

A Republican challenger to Rep. Mike Honda says she raised $100,000 in her campaign's first five days -- but two parts of that statement bear further explanation.

"People are tired of career politicians who are only concerned about their careers and not the jobs of the American people," she said in a news release issued Tuesday. "My message is that we need to solve problems and find solutions. When someone is on an operating table you come to quick solutions in the interest of the patient. In government, that solution is often set aside for petty politics."

Asked for more details, Singh campaign consultant Jason Klindt acknowledged later Tuesday that this initial $100,000 haul includes $25,000 from the candidate herself. He said he couldn't provide more information about how many donors gave the other $75,000, or how much of that money came from within the 17th Congressional District; the campaign will have to disclose that later to the Federal Election Commission.

Also, a 2012 voter registration database showed Singh was registered without any party affiliation, not as a Republican. Klindt said Tuesday that Singh "updated her registration as she filed for Congress."

Singh -- now the third Asian-American candidate in the continental United States' first majority Asian-American district -- might have to fight for notice in a race that's already drawing national attention as former Obama administration official Ro Khanna, a Democrat, takes on Honda, D-San Jose.

With Honda being one of the House's most liberal members and Khanna slightly less so, Singh likely would siphon more nonpartisan and Republican votes -- some of the anybody-but-Honda bloc -- from Khanna's campaign than from Honda's.

But both Democrats are far better funded (though Khanna has been outraising Honda significantly), and the district's voter-registration breakdown is 44.4 percent Democrat, 31.5 percent nonpartisan and 18.9 percent Republican. So, at first glance, it seems unlikely she could surpass either Democrat to finish first or second in June's "top-two" primary and proceed to November's general election.

Singh is a clinical associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University, where she treats patients with complex pain management issues; she's also a married mother of two.

She graduated from George Washington University Medical School in 1997 and received further training at Yale, Cornell and Columbia; she taught as a clinical assistant professor at UCLA before coming to Stanford. Though born in India, she's a graduate of Fremont public schools and of UC Berkeley.